Monday, 26 February 2018

Last week I was almost fooled into thinking Spring was here. Mild temperatures, sunshine and all the birds in bright plumage meant working in the garden was a delight. Bumblebees buzzed me and bramblings, goldfinch and chaffinch cheerily encouraged me to keep filling the feeders. Luckily I refrained from planting out anything too tender as we are now in the grips of the much reported 'Beast from the East' a spell of Siberian winter. As I type, soft snowflakes are flurrying past the window, few and far between. The air is too dry at the moment for heavy snow but this will change by Wednesday.

So, I have bought in the geranium that has so far survived the winter outside and the Giant Sequoia saplings are back in as well. With no camelias to wrap up, everything else will have to make do. Spring bulbs are reasonably resilient and a blanket of snow will insulate them, worst case scenario for the garden is snow melting and refreezing, turning tender and soft stemmed plants to mush.

Despite the cold spell, plans are underway for the continuing garden revamp. New planters are being made for a mini allotment. Once the beastly weather has moved on, they will accommodate onions, carrots, french beans and strawberries. So, time to start following the moon phases to work out planting times for seeds and sets. I think at the moment it is waxing gibbous. The old shrubs, crowding out the flowerbeds and pushing out the walls have been cleared to make way for new fencing (soon...) and rebuilding and new plans for planting schemes are being earmarked in plant catalogues.